At the beginning of the month Vegan.com put together a list of of his favorite vegan cookbook recipes for the year. I must have been sleeping, somehow I missed it. But I also read the Vegan Planet blog, and Robin posted about it today.

Having reviewed the recipes with Jane earlier, we feel compelled to share this with our readers who might not visit these sites. Some of these recipes look very interesting. And since they rate as "top 10" they're probably very worthy of a test drive.

The recipes that make the cut are:

1. Plantain Omelet - From Mark Reinfeld and Bo Rinaldi’s Vegan Fusion World Cuisine
2. Thai Coconut Corn Soup - From Nava Atlas’ Vegan Express
3. Indonesian Coconut Rice - From Robin Robertson’s Vegan Fire & Spice
4. Baked Ziti - From Beverly Lynn Bennett’s Vegan Bites
5. Moroccan Phyllo Rolls - From Dreena Burton’s Eat, Drink & Be Vegan
6. Italian Stuffed Crepes - From Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Nonna's Italian Kitchen
7. Chickpea Curry - From Hema Parekh’s The Asian Vegan Kitchen
8. Banana Chocolate Bread Pudding - From Isa Chandra Moskowtiz and Terry Hope Romano’s Veganomicon
9. Root Beer Float Cupcakes - From Hannah Kaminsky’s My Sweet Vegan
10. Fresh Mango Cobler - From Ani Phyo’s Ani's Raw Food Kitchen

Make sure to visit Vegan.com for the actual recipes, if you don't already own these cookbooks. We'll let you know what we think after we've tried them, but Jane wants me to put a caveat here: We have amassed a ton of "must try" recipes. So it isn't likely that we'll get through this list in the immediate future. Be sure to let us know what you think!

Purchasing factory farmed meat products supports the violence perpetrated on animals. Does it also support the violence perpetrated on other human beings?

Jane and I were speculating about this recently: Does working in a slaughterhouse somehow alter your perception of violence? Does it inure you to violence, leaving you indifferent to acts of violence being perpetrated on other persons? Or might it serve as an outlet for a fraction of slaughterhouse employees... preventing some from turning around and slaughtering humans?

Intuitively, I would think that the more violence you perpetrate, the more desensitized you become to it, the easier it is to commit or ignore acts of violence.

It seems like we're not the only ones pondering this. On April 3rd the Freakonomics Blog covered this very topic. They reference two studies, one of which shows a link to the psychological damage suffered by slaughterhouse workers; the other links the violent work at the slaughterhouse to increased crime rates in the surrounding communities. Slaughterhouse by Gail Eisnitz, also talks in brief about the link between slaughterhouse violence and domestic violence.

If this subject is new to you, you might want to check out our post Earthlings -- A Discourse on Compassion. You'll find a link to the Earthlings DVD (2003) narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. Although it doesn't directly touch on the aspect of the nature of the slaughterhouse as it pertains to the human experience, it does provide graphic illustration of what humans do to these animals. This video also touches on a wide variety of the other abuses of animals by man and is very compelling. I really can't recommend it highly enough. If you haven't seen it, watch it. It will change you.

Also, our post Another Reason Not To Eat Meat has the undercover Humane Society video clip of employees at the Hallmark Meat Packing Company abusing downed cattle while trying to get them into the slaughterhouse. Again, there is no discussion as to the correlation between slaughterhouses and human violence. But it too provides graphic footage of just how horribly these animals are treated.

I'll end with this thought:

"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."

—Pythagoras (500 BC)

What's going on in Canada? At the end of March, in discussing why I am vegan, I mentioned that Canada opened their commercial seal hunt (according to the Humane Society of the US this is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet) on March 28th. Today I read that Canada is paying pork farmers $50 million to slaughter 150,000 pigs by November; all in the interests of propping up the Canadian pork industry which is in the throes economic implosion.

The Canadian Association of Food Banks is working with the pork council to come up with a plan to distribute some of the meat to the 720,000 Canadians who depend on food banks each month.

-- from The Canadian Press

I don't eat meat. I go to the school that you don't "need" to eat meat to survive. But to just kill these pigs and throw them away? That seems outrageous to me. I truly hope the Canadian Association of Food Banks can make some headway. The government plans to distribute "some" of the meat? What is some? 5%? 30%? How many animals will be killed just so that a dying industry can be propped up.

I don't know much about the government of Canada, but since they are in essence "buying" this meat, I'm wondering why it isn't automatically going into government subsidized food programs. And perhaps, if hog farming is not an economically viable industry any longer, the Canadian government shouldn't try to prop it up. Maybe the subsidies could be designed to help these hog farmers transition to a more economically viable crop.

Then again, I probably shouldn't be pointing a finger at Canada. Doesn't my government do the same thing? We've given out approximately $15 billion annually in farm subsidies for the twelve year period 1995 - 2006. (Source: Environmental Working Group) I thought we were supposed to be a capitalist society. Doesn't that mean that market forces, not government intervention, should dictate prices?

The other night, Jane and I went to The Blue Hen in Eagle Rock (a neighborhood in Los Angeles). It's not a vegan restaurant, but they do have vegan-friendly meals. We'd read a few interesting reviews and decided to try it. The item that got the highest marks in the reviews, and from us as well, is the Mama Luu's Tofu. It's lightly fried, and the vegetarian scallion sauce is really delicious. Next time one of us would order that as a main course (that comes with rice and greens).

Jane ordered the Vietnamese Noodle Soup. I wasn't all that impressed, it reminded me of bland ramen, but Jane enjoyed it. Neither of us cared for the tofu in the broth. As with most Vietnamese soups, this came with basil leaves, onion, and bean sprouts to dress your soup. There were also a few flavored condiments for heat... some kind of soy concoction and the typical chili sauce.

My choice was the Blue Hen Homestyle Curry. No surprise there, I'll often go for the curries. Of course, I chose the tofu option over the chicken. It was flavorful and filling. I'd definitely recommend this dish.

So, we give this restaurant a positive review. We told our waitress we were vegan, and she assured us that the sauces we were eating were indeed vegan. She pointed out that the soup could be had with a vegetable based broth, as could the dipping sauce for the Mama Luu's Tofu.

We like the fact that the restaurant supports local farmers and organic suppliers whenever possible. It's clean and inexpensive and the food is good, although the menu is limited. If you decide to try it, make sure to tell your server about your dietary restrictions.

For other restaurant reviews you can see our Vegan Resources page where we've got links to our restaurant reviews and sites to help you find restaurants around the world.

	Let's Do Organic Ice Cream Cones, 12-Count Boxes (Pack of 12)

Over the past few months, I've been complaining about the results of Jane's vegan baking efforts. Don't get me wrong... she's been complaining too. Overall, we've come to the conclusion that vegan baked goods just aren't as good as traditional baked goods. And while we miss the olden days of Princess Cake (the most amazing cake -- genoise, marzipan, whipped cream, raspberry filling... mmm, princess cake) and other goodies, we're willing to make this "sacrifice." Well, as of today, that's changed. Jane made the vegan brownie recipe from "The Joy of Vegan Baking" ... and oh my god it's amazing.

These brownies are not too sweet. They don't have that "hmm that's different" taste that many vegan baked goods are subject too. These brownies taste exactly like BROWNIES. They're so good that Jane is making me take the remainder in to work tomorrow because she doesn't trust herself to be around them. And she's already planning to make a second batch to welcome our new neighbors this weekend. Who needs Starbuck's vegan brownies when you can make these at home.